Jay Johnson’s stunning video for ‘Island’

18-year-old South Londoner Jay Johnson isn’t your average check-shirted folk singer, more of what you might call an urban poet. Born in Nigeria, Jay grew up in the cultural hub of South East London. He picked up his first guitar at age 13 and never looked back.

With a lot of heart and lyrics that hit in all the right places it’s hard to believe that Jay Johnson is still a teenager, even less so that he has such a worldliness about him at such an age. It’s inspiring to see the way he talks about the world and has such a broad understanding of the struggle our generation faces.

The video is a simple ‘man and his guitar’ concept but anything else would feel cheap or contrived, the song doesn’t need anything fancy to take away from it’s dazzle. Jay Johnson has a natural ease in front of the camera that makes the music come across even more genuine and sincere. Look at the video below.

A diverse triumvirate of Bob Dylan, Paolo Nutini, and Ben Harper head up the all-important influences league, but it was the music of Ben Howard that finally convinced Jay to pursue his dream. “Discovering his Every Kingdom album was definitely a milestone in my journey through music.”

With a recent slot at Brighton’s Great Escape Festival, and an unscheduled performance at Secret Sessions Live last month, he’s proud to introduce The Dark Matters EP – important music from a millennial musician giving the lie to his generation’s reputation as lazy, entitled snowflakes.

Following his debut video ‘Midnight Men’, a new track & video ‘Island’ is streaming now. “It’s a song about a realisation I had,” comments Jay. “The lyrics are fairly self-explanatory; it’s amazing to think what one can achieve without the help of others. That being said everyone needs a bit of help from time to time.”

If you like what you hear then go and show him some support on facebook and head down to his show on 7th July at The Fighting Cocks, Kingston Upon Thames.